Column: Jobs are key to better immigration policy

Community columnist

Feb. 1, 2013

Chip Tappan / Provided

Written by

Chip Tappan

Community columnist

In 2002, we built a new house in Northern Kentucky. We watched the crews work, as we then lived only a couple miles away.

I remember the framing crew and roofers. All were Hispanic. Only the foreman spoke English, and they worked from morning until dark. It amazed me how efficient they were Ė faster than all the other crews by far.

Two or three years later, as other houses in our subdivision were built, these Hispanic crews had disappeared. A controversy had erupted. Henry Fischer Homes was investigated for hiring illegal workers, although it was a subcontractor, and the company was eventually exonerated. However, all the builders, including ours, ceased using Hispanics.

The result seemed to be a slowdown in the work. American crews would not put in such long hours, perhaps, or somehow they werenít as motivated to finish on as short a schedule.

Initially we had Hispanic crews as landscapers. They also spoke almost no English. Again, they were replaced by young American workers.

President Obama pledged this week to work with a bipartisan group of senators to enact a comprehensive new immigration law.

While it no doubt will affect Kentucky less than some other areas, we do have an interest in seeing a practical and humane solution to a decades-old mess of a national policy.

Illegal immigrants did violate U.S. law by coming into the country without permission. That said, their intent was identical to all legal immigrants: to find a better life for themselves and their families.

They endured great risks in doing so, and once here, nearly all have sought not to violate any other laws. We should give them respect; they have courage and a solid work ethic.

So what should a new U.S. law do? An estimated 11 million illegal immigrants are here, many have children now born as U.S. citizens, and many brought children with them who were very young.

My first thought is to de-politicize the matter. It should not be a political issue.

Second, we do need a practical way to stop further illegal immigration. Fences, drones, border patrols, etc. make it harder to get across our border, but probably only slow it down.

The real answer seems to me to be jobs. Letís have a counterfeit-proof national identity card, for everyone. Employers could then be sure that whomever they hire will either be a U.S. citizen or a visitor with a work permit.

Third, we need to greatly expand the number of work permits to meet the demand of all employers who cannot find enough citizens to work for them. Let the marketplace determine how many are needed.

Finally, letís develop a practical and humane policy to deal with all illegals already here. It needs to be permanent, so that all illegals now caught in a no-manís land can make decisions for themselves and their children that will not change with the next administration in Washington.

Those here cannot be sent back. It would be too expensive (the lawyers would love it), too inhumane (separating children from parents), and a terrible waste of human resources (we have been educating the children, absorbing health care costs, etc.). We need to unlock the full economic potential of these people by giving them a sound legal status.

The bipartisan Senate plan looks to me like a very good start. The one item Iím skeptical about is the idea that better border security alone will stop the flow of illegals.

The fact that the Great Recession slowed the flow is a telling sign that jobs are the key.

If those wanting better paying jobs in the U.S. know they canít get them without a foolproof identity card, this would do more than any ramped-up border security and probably at less cost. I did see a hint in the Senate plan that perhaps some form of such a card should be included.

Working for a natural gas pipeline company in the 1960s, I learned that, if there is a national problem, there is often a bad law from Congress that created it.

In that case, Congress imposed price controls on natural gas, a move that caused a national shortage.

Our immigration policy is a bad law that has been around far too long. Letís fix it.

Chip Tappan is president of Tappan Properties, which includes commercial real estate in both Kentucky and Ohio. Reach him at chiptappan@aol.com.